Packaging operations in industry are of significant import and interest towards promoting the rapid, efficient and economical packaging of products for the market. Food packaging generally and particularly the bakery and meat packaging industry require additionally strict maintenance of sanitary conditions. Automatic or semiautomatic packaging techniques have been developed towards achievement of these desired goals. Semiautomatic packaging techniques, that is to say, those requiring the cooperation of a human operator with a machine, are uniquely of interest to the bakery and meat packing industry since the products being packaged frequently are not exactly alike as to size, shape and weight, a circumstance militating against fully automatic packing. To the extent that food products, such as bakery goods, meat cuts and the like are at least sufficiently alike in size, shape and weight in a given series to permit the use of packaging bags of the same size and material, some degree of automation in the packaging operation is possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,627 to Kupcikevicius et al. is illustrative of such semi-automatic packaging techniques and apparatus. As disclosed therein, the packaging operation is carried out by placing a number of flexible packaging bags adjacent to the packaging apparatus which is equipped with an air blower. The blower directs a stream of air into the open end of each bag in order to inflate the bags and facilitate entry of articles such as bakery goods, meat cuts or other food products. The flexible packaging bags are arranged in flatwise contiguous manner one on top of the other to form a stacked supply of bags which is held together by a wicket. Each bag is provided with two wicket holes which are maintained in substantial registration with the wicket holes in respectively contiguous bags in the stack. The wicket extends through the wicket holes in each bag and is usually secured at one end of the stack in order to hold the same neatly in a bundle. Various types of wickets can be used such as those disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,770,134 and 3,777,930.
During the packaging operation, a stacked and wicket held supply of packaging bags is placed on a flat surface or table adjacent to the packaging station. The discharge end of the blower is then located adjacent to the stacked supply of bags with the nozzle resting on top of the wicket. The wicket is formed at its center with a retaining element which carries the weight of the nozzle and which in turn bears down on top of the stacked supply of bags to hold the same in place. The packaging apparatus is usually provided with locking devices such as sockets or the like, which receive and hold the ends of the wicket. This arrangement assures proper alignment of the bags with respect to the discharge end of the nozzle. The blower directs a stream of air toward the bag stack which opens and inflates the topmost bag. The article to be packaged such as precut meat is then placed inside the inflated bag by the operator. The article filled bag is easily removed from the wicket by simply pulling the bag in an opposite direction. This immediately exposes the next contiguous bag in the stacked supply of bags and the whole operation is repeated again in sequence.
It will be readily apparent from the above description that the size and particularly the height of the stacked and wicket held supply of bags must necessarily be limited to some practical dimension which will not interfere with or obstruct operation of the packaging apparatus. For example, where it is desirable to incorporate a large number of packaging bags in a single stack of bags for purposes of efficiency or convenience, it may not be possible owing to the increased size or height of the bag stack to properly locate the blower nozzle on top of the the wicket. Another serious problem has been that whenever the number or "count" of individual bags employed in the stack is significantly increased, the weight of the stack increases and the stack may become bulky and difficult to handle. The added height of the stack of bags frequently leads to difficult problems since the locking devices used to hold the wickets in place may not be able to sustain the added force applied to them. Accordingly, the wickets may loosen and allow the bags to move in a direction away from the blower nozzle. As a consequence, it may be necessary at times to stop the packaging operation at least temporarily to realign the bags.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for packaging articles, particularly food products and the like, in flexible packaging bags, which is far more reliable, practical and economical.
Another more specific object of the present invention is to provide such an improved packaging method and apparatus which will allow a greater number of individual bags to be incorporated into each stacked and wicket held supply of bags than heretofore possible without at the same time causing any serious misalignment problems.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an improved packaging method and apparatus which will permit a number of the packaging bags to be taken from the stacked supply of bags at one time and placed in position ready for use at the packaging station while the remaining bags in the stack are held apart in a separate storage area.